In the wake of the murder of Annie Le GRD ’13, the national media has portrayed New Haven as a very “dangerous” place.

“Right next to the Yale campus, there is a dangerous neighborhood,” a “Today” show reporter said Thursday.

Reed Reibstein

Perception vs. Fact

“Some say the area around Yale can be a very dangerous area,” an ABC correspondent reported Friday.

But Yale has tried to paint a very different picture.

“It is worth remembering that the city reports that crime in New Haven has decreased by more than 50 percent since 1990,” University Vice President and Secretary Linda Lorimer wrote in an e-mail to the Yale community Saturday.

Even before Le’s killing, students themselves were unsure. In a survey of Yale undergraduates conducted by the News in the three days before the University announced Le’s disappearance, just as many students said they believed New Haven was a safe city as said they believed it dangerous.

Like the similarly jarring murders of students Christian Prince ’91 and Suzanne Jovin ’99, Le’s murder has brought Yale, New Haven and their respective security structures under intense scrutiny.

But as it happens, there is a gulf between perceptions and reality — these incidents are aberrations in an relatively safe college town. Although statistics suggest that New Haven as a whole is still more dangerous than other cities of comparable size, the area around Yale is no more dangerous than those that surround other schools.

Getting Safer

Yale and New Haven’s reputation for being dangerous likely originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when crack-cocaine made the city an entirely different place. During that time, when the city was the site of a drug war, there were three times as many shootings in the city as there are today.

And Yale’s campus was not as safe either. There were over 1,000 major crimes — including motor-vehicle theft, larceny and rape — on Yale’s campus each year in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Crime on campus peaked in 1990 with 1,439 major crimes. The image of a dangerous Yale is epitomized by the murder of Prince, who was fatally shot in the chest on Feb. 17, 1991, on the steps of St. Mary’s Church on Hillhouse Avenue.

“When 19-year-old Christian H. Prince died in an attempted robbery — just a block from the university president’s house — whatever remained of the students’ sense of protection around campus died too,” The New York Times reported two days after the murder in a story headlined: “At Yale, Fear and Anger Join Grief Over Slaying.”

The murder shook the campus: “That was a bad time,” Deputy University Secretary Martha Highsmith said. “It was a horrible time.”

After the incident, the University spent millions of dollars installing new lights and blue phones and adding security personnel. But, just seven years later, Jovin was fatally stabbed.

“Whenever we see a spike in criminal activity, we look very carefully to make sure the structure of our patrol beats is organized correctly,” University President Richard Levin said in an interview last week before Le’s disappearance. “And at least three times in my presidency, we’ve made significant increases in the staff of police and security personnel to improve safety on campus.”

For a time, the effort appeared to have paid off. In 2008, Yale reported 296 major crimes on campus, one-fifth as many as reported in 1990. And New Haven has followed a similar trend — in 1994, there were 2,648 violent crimes in the city; in 2008, there were just 1,637.

JUST HOW DANGEROUS IS IT?

Despite the drop, the recent numbers do not bode well for New Haven.

In 2007 and 2008 combined, New Haven reported 2,690 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reports. This number is comparable to the crime rates in two of Connecticut’s other major cities, Hartford and Bridgeport — 2,377 and 2,338 respectively. (As defined by the FBI, violent crimes include murder, forcible rape, robbery rape and aggravated assault.)

The average U.S. city of comparable size to New Haven had only 1,246 violent crimes per 100,000 residents — less than half as many.

But the fact that New Haven has more reported violent crime than other cities does not necessarily make it more dangerous. Indeed, the FBI discourages ranking cities based off of the FBI crime reports. The purpose of the reports is to give statistics to academics and cities to do research, FBI Unit Chief Stephen Fischer Jr. said.

“A ranking provides no insight into the many variables that mold crime,” Fischer said. “One city might report more crime than another, not because there is more crime, but because one city might be more proactive in investigating and reporting crime.”

And a spokeswoman for the Hartford Police Department, Nancy Mulroy, agreed that numbers only tell part of the story.

“At a glance, it would be fair to say Hartford had fewer violent crimes per 100,000 people, but safety is preserved in different ways,” she said, adding that she would need more information on the nature of the crimes to make a judgment on whether Hartford is safer than New Haven.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

But taking a closer look at the dynamics of New Haven can help explain some of the crime difference, New Haven Police Department Chief James Lewis said in an interview earlier this month.

Some cities with lots of office space have a large influx of non-residents during the day. Other cities have a vibrant nightlife, causing a large influx of non-residents at night. In both of these types of cities, the actual number of people in the city — and the number of potential crime victims — is much larger than the reported number of residents. This, Lewis said, artificially inflates the crime rates per capita.

New Haven is somewhat rare because it has a spike both in the day and in the night, a fact that may be responsible for the city’s higher reported crime rate, Lewis explained.

“During the daytime we have a large influx of people into the city because of Yale, because of the hospitals, because of government buildings, the court houses, et cetera,” he said. “At the same time, in the evenings, we have this different population that comes in because we have become something of an entertainment district compared to other cities.”

But even given this dynamic, Lewis said he does not deny that violent crime in New Haven is high relative to other similar cities.

“The reality, based on the stats, is that we do have a large number of street robberies and shootings,” he said.

Neighborhoods with high crime rates form a ring around downtown, Lewis said. Much of the crime in those neighborhoods, he said, is linked to illegal drugs. At the same time, he noted, there is little street crime downtown and around Yale. Almost all incidents in that area are related to intoxicated bar patrons getting into fights, he said.

“It’s a tale of two cities,” he said. “I would argue our downtown is safer than many urban downtowns. But I’d say some of our neighborhoods are more dangerous than many neighborhoods in the country.”

HOW SAFE IS YALE?

Three days before Le’s disappearance was reported to the Yale community, the News sent an online survey to 2,000 undergraduate students regarding their perceptions of safety both at Yale and New Haven, and 720 replied. The results showed that the farther students go from the center of campus, the more unsafe they feel. While only 13 percent of Yale juniors and seniors answered that have ever felt unsafe throughout central campus, 21 percent have felt unsafe on Science Hill, 43 percent have felt unsafe by the medical school and 74 percent have felt unsafe elsewhere in New Haven.

The survey also showed that while 37.5 percent of Yale students who had an opinion think Yale and its surrounding neighborhoods are dangerous or moderately dangerous, less than half as many Yale students surveyed think that Harvard and Brown are as dangerous, despite both being located in cities of comparable size to New Haven.

“I don’t really feel unsafe walking in downtown areas by myself at most any time of the night,” Vann Jarrell ’10 said. “But off campus is a completely different feel.”

Jarrell was over a dozen blocks off campus last summer when he became the victim of an armed robbery.

Quyen Slotznick ’11 also said she feels Yale is generally safe.

“If I for any reason feel uncomfortable walking home,” she said, “I always breathe a sigh of relief once I swipe into my college gates or a Yale building with my Yale ID and the door closes behind me.”

And Ashley Baldwin-Hunter ’11 said she feels “very safe” on campus, particularly during the school year. During the summer, though, she said that Yale “evaporates to a degree, along with the protective bubble it and its student body create, revealing the true nature of New Haven the city.”

Despite Yale students’ trepidation, the statistics show that Yale is no more dangerous than other Ivy League schools.

“When you look at the reported crimes on different college campuses in the Ivy League, we’re not near the top,” Levin pointed out in the interview. “We’re sort of in the middle.”

A CLOSER LOOK

Yale reported 11.7 criminal offences per 1,000 students in 2007, the most recent year for which data is available. Harvard University reported the most criminal offenses on campus with 20.5 per 1,000 students.

On the other end, Cornell University reported only 2.7 criminal offences per 1,000 students. And the University of Pennsylvania — which Yale students surveyed thought was the most dangerous Ivy — reported only six criminal offenses on campus per 1,000 students.

All other Ivy League schools reported between 9.6 and 12 criminal offences per 1,000 students.

The goal of the Clery Act — a federal law requiring all colleges and universities to report statistics about crime on campus to the U.S. Department of Education — is to allow students and parents to compare the safety of various schools. The U.S. Department of Education releases a 216-page book telling schools which crimes must be reported and how to classify those crimes.

Still, Highsmith said that different schools — in good faith — interpret the law differently, making comparisons difficult.

“I think there’s a lot of interpretation from campus to campus, particularly in terms of crime like burglary and theft,” Highsmith said. “Campuses that have a police department probably tend to be more strict in terms of classifying something as a burglary as opposed to a theft.”

(In contrast to a theft, which does not need to be reported, a burglary involves trespassing and must be reported.)

The University of Pennsylvania reported only 41 burglaries — only 28 percent of all reported Penn crime — while at every other Ivy League school, burglaries made up at least 65 percent of reported criminal offences. Additionally, Highsmith said schools without their own police departments have to rely on local police to provide them with data, which they may or may not get.

The FBI’s universal crime reports, she added, are better for comparisons because there are fewer judgment calls. But, Highsmith summarized, areas around Yale are very safe.

“We did not have high numbers of robberies and assaults in the areas right around campus,” she said.

CHANGING PERCEPTIONS

There are signs that as the city gets safer, people’s perceptions of New Haven are changing for the better.

“We all know that there remains a lingering misperception about New Haven among a small, but sometimes vocal number of people ­(i.e., the Harvard Crimson!),” Associate Vice President for New Haven and State Affairs Michael Morand ’87 DIV ’93 said in an e-mail message.

“But the reality of New Haven as a place of choice, a good place to live, work, and study, is recognized by increasing and large numbers of people,” he continued, citing the growing number of people choosing to live, shop and dine downtown.

And while on most tours of campus, prospective students and their parents still ask if New Haven is safe, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeffrey Brenzel ’75 said in an interview before Le went missing that these days, safety does not seem to be a particular concern people have when considering Yale.

The number of students choosing to accept Yale’s offer of admission has increased to 68 percent from 53 percent over the past 15 years. And a record number of students are choosing Yale over Harvard, Stanford and Princeton, indicating that security is not a large concern.

“When we look at students who are admitted to Yale and decide not to come, it used to be that security in New Haven was a major, major factor in the decision,” Levin said in the interview. “That is not the case today.”

And this progress may not be lost as a result of Le’s homicide. While students expressed widespread shock about the crime, most undergraduates interviewed Monday said they believed the murder was an isolated incident that does not change their perceptions of New Haven’s safety.

“I don’t believe that New Haven is any less safe than before,” Stephen Silva ’11 said. “I am not aware of the details of Annie’s death and can’t jump to conclusions, but murder is a crime of passion, an isolated account that, in small quantities, does not affect the overall safety of a particular zone.”

Rather, Silva said, a murder creates an opportunity to reflect on the way we treat and respond to one another.

Other students took a wait-and-see attitude.

“Realistically, I feel that our world, especially at Yale, is much safer than we imagine,” Alex Klein ’12 wrote in an e-mail message. “That said, there is something viscerally terrifying about what happened to Annie Le, which is going to profoundly affect us — psychologically, as a student body — for years to come.”

Comments

banghead

Why is this even an issue???

THE MURDER WAS AN INSIDE JOB. It’s a crime perpetrated by one Yalie (whether employee, faculty, or student) against another Yalie. This is not a matter of random people bludgeoning others on the street late at night.

Obviously this just proves that no amount of video cameras, elitist high-tech security cards, or increased police presence can keep anyone safe. Expanding the prison-industrial infrastructure that Yale maintains against its community is not the answer. Clearly a case of awful misogynist violence against this poor woman.

Stephen

Why was Annie Le alone in the basement? Where was security?
Why male lab tecs working with
female students? I hope Le’s family sues Yale for everything
since they lost everything!

DoubleU

The Undergrad Campus and Medical Campus are night and day buddy. Take a walk one block behind Amistad or 2 blocks up from College and Cedar and you are in VERY undesirable locations. While the University is definitely doing its part and more so, the fact is that the under belly of this city is ridiculously dangerous. For more data go to http://www.newhavencrimelog.org

Westchester

So the YDN bats leadoff in the damage control game. Yale is REEELY safe .. its even safer than HAHHVAD!

And save us from those stupid Clery Act stats. How long ago was it that Yale was sued for drastically underreporting the numbers?

Its all in what you (or the campus cops)call a “crime”, and how you define “the campus”.

Spinners

Get those spin-machines a’spinnin!

No biggie: N’Haven is *only* as dangerous as Hartford and… BRIDGEPORT?!

Yikes!

At least this article examined New Haven overall, whilst Yale insists on reporting only “campus” crimes…

NYC resident

New haven is an extremely safe city, one of the safest in the USA in fact. You didn’t do a very good job looking at the statistics, which when compared in a comparable way across cities (accounting for metro areas as defined by the census bureau, as opposed to political boundary, which varies from place to place and therefore renders per capital statistics impossible to compare), show this.

That said, your perception surveys are interesting. Maybe if the media had a basic understanding of the above, the perception would be different. Then again, there is a different dynamic in a small city than a large one. In NYC, a recent college grad was killed in a random robbery in front of my building, and my neighbors never even knew about it. Also, there have been several awful crimes recently against nyu and Columbia students, including two killed in muggings near the Columbia campus, but most students are unaware they even took place. Compare these to the dynamics of the Le case. Even if a very small crime occurs in new haven, the entire city knows because in Connecticut, everyone knows each other while in larger cities, we are all very anonymous.

In future surveys, you should also ask about speeding cars. The danger from traffic is much greater than students realize. Do a search through the news archives on car accidents and you’ll see an ongoing string of serious, random and life long injuries taking place on the heart of the campus every year. In fact, the nyu and Columbia students I mentioned above were killed when their assailants threw them I to streets that had high speed oncoming traffic. Their deaths could have been prevented, perhaps, if NYC had decent traffic enforcement.

Cordalie

How many Yale affiliates died by car accident in the same time period?

NYC resident

Cordalie, unfortunately, nobody calculates or remembers those statistics. If you’re killed by a car, as many in both NYC and New Haven are every year, nobody remembers.

oh yeah and i strongly agree with Cordalie that many more yalies get slaughtered by cars than anyone realizes. surprised the yale parents dont lobby yale to take the unsafe streets seriously, like cambridge/boulder/portland have done.

A

Detectives at the NHPD didn’t even have voice mail until the new Chief Lewis arrived, according to a recent NH Register interview with him (linked below).

Regrettably, that long-standing technological deficiency seems to reflect a laissez-faire attitude toward pursuit and enforcement within the NHPD which had been systemically, though probably not intentionally, adopted over the course of time—an attitude evidenced by the habitual reluctance to pursue even “minor” infractions such as running red lights, which has been deadly in this city.

Citizens prove that they respect the law when they obey it or work to change it through legislation. But public law *enforcement* can be said to do so only when they blindly and consistently enforce it. It is good to see that under the leadership of Chief Lewis, the department seems interested again not only in restoring the public’s faith in their respect for the law (and thus also for the citizens they protect), but that the department seems newly dedicated to restoring the kind of self-confidence in its officers that can only come through the actual fulfillment of one’s duties.

Let us hope that both citizens and officers renew their commitments to live up to their obligations.

I am a recent Yale graduate who grew up in New York City during its crime wave of the 1980s. That said, I have never felt more unsafe than I did while in New Haven. Campus security only cares about those living in residential colleges–not graduate students living just a block from the school of Architecture or next to a Yale-owned building off Science Hill. The streets lack appropriate lighting, they are desolate, and the school’s attempts at security are meaningless. You can call for a night bus, but you’ll be waiting on a dark corner for almost an hour for it to pick you up. In that time, you can be shot, the bus can pass you by, and you end up walking through a New England hell. What about walking alongside the highway to get to the medical school? What about the aggressive daytime panhandling by Toad’s/Mory’s/Au Bon Pain (the people who refuse to let you walk down the street and accost you for money)? Day or night, weekend or workday, Yale does nothing to address safety concerns because students across the world still want an Ivy-League education. Yale security would like to say that the students who are mugged, assaulted, robbed, or accosted were “not paying attention” to their surroundings and were instead flashing brand new cell phones in the air while being plugged into an iPod at full blast. That is not what I saw. This is the problem when you have school buildings spread out across a dangerous city and Yale does absolutely nothing to crack the town-gown animosity, give money back to a poor city and its citizens (many of whom are Yale employees), and protect students. Ms. Le’s death is a tragedy, and it is even worse to hear that it may have been committed by a member of the school community. But I will say this: New Haven is a dangerous city and Yale doesn’t care. Wait two weeks, let the news crews drive away, and I can almost guarantee that things will be back to normal for Yale security–putting all of us at risk. I commuted to Yale my last two years after a shooting and a stabbing on my corner. . . I spent thousands of dollars on commutation. I may have missed out on some social experiences, but my safety was–and still is–worth every penny. And for the liberals who claim that New Haven is safe: Go find a grad student living in New Haven Towers and ask them what a walk home at 8 PM is like. Offer to take the walk with that person, and maybe you’ll get a realistic view of the world. Apologies for the long post, but hooray for the current YDN for posting this story.

Grad Student

Why do surveys like this go out only to undergrad students who almost all live behind keycard accessible only buildings and not actually in New Haven?

Ask Grad students, like Annie Le, who mostly live off-campus and all your statistics to that regard will probably change.

Hieronymus

Poster on another thread brought up a point worth considering. While stats appear to show that New Haven isn’t the most dangerous city on earth, one must keep in mind the self-segregating nature of the town.

One issue/difference with New Haven is the ubiquity of sketchy characters. Nothing like being panhandled while trying to grab a bite at Claire’s–INSIDE! Nothing like having some bum knock on your car window demanding some change. Nothing like being accosted while standing at the ATM.

Anecdotal, yes–but these have all happened to me, and only in New Haven (though I am confident bums stand near ATMs most anywhere, just not as often). Also, I personally know many off-campusers who have been burglarized (which will NOT show up on Yale’s stats) and, of course, New Haven is a car-theft hot-spot.

So, as usual, one must delve deeper than surface stats to find a story. Heck, maybe New Haven is, indeed, SAFER than indicated, but I doubt it…

xhen bioa

I lived in new haven in the 70’s as a teen. Our neighbourhood was slyvan avenue near to yale. If u think that yale is safe u r quite mistaken – maybe all of u should take a looksee at the crimes back then, In fact my friend Mar killed his yale wife while she was on campus in a bio lab then shot himself as well. He wanted to go back to thailand but could see no way out. TH

Hm

Grad Student #12 is on to something: life as an undergrad, what with moated housing and effectively chaperoned events, does not reveal the grittier nature of New Haven. Grad students have a *much* different experience (and they are typically here for longer).

Yale grad

It’s really important to distinguish between crimes against strangers, and crimes among those who know each other. A crime like this one — while extremely horrific and sad — really tells us absolutely nothing about how safe any random person is walking around the med school, or around New Haven in general.

Random muggings or shootings are one thing, crimes among people who work in the same lab building are another. The Christian Prince murder showed how unsafe the streets of New Haven were back then, but Annie Le’s murder has nothing to do with the question of how safe or unsafe the streets of New Haven are today. (And they’re obviously a lot safer than they were back then.)

Law School Widow

Look, my partner and I moved to downtown NH from Crown Heights, Brooklyn. It seems from talking to people that folks forget that New Haven is a city with urban problems and urban poverty. The town/gown divide goes beyond temporary/permanent, but is deeply reflective of class and race differences. Yale u-grads are whiter and richer than New Haven residents, plain and simple. Grad students are whiter and perceived to be richer. Students walk around oblivious to the privileges and ergo resentments they have accrued, and therefore make themselves targets to hustlers, panhandlers, muggers, etc. The blatant disregard for their privileges further engenders the hate that townies have for Yalies. New Haven is awesome in the summer – the fewer the u-grads, the safer downtown is, because there are fewer roving targets of drunken privilege. Just as it is stupid to drive a fancy car, wear fancy clothes, and flash your money around in a nabe like Crown Heights (especially if you are white) it is stupid to do the same in New Haven. Until Yale and other relevant institutions address the deep structural causes of poverty and racism in New Haven, Yalies should shape up and act like they are in the urban center in which they are actually located, not a protected bubble of ivy vines and privilege. New Haven is a city, not a college town.

AJD

You have to also remember it is better not to resist certain robberies. Better to flee at first warning sign of danger, dial your phone immediately while leaving. Leave your light on and windows closed, it may deter crime, For what it is worth.

Off Campus Alum

In describing neighborhoods, “feels dangerous” and “seems sketchy” are very often euphemisms for “looks poor and black”

sandra cummins

Everyone who grows up on the mid-Atlantic or New England coast knows that New Haven is a ghetto. It is never a safe place to be. Just ask your local hotels which will tell you where you cannot walk safely, just a block from campus. Wake up and stop believing the BS Yale tells you–you are not living in a safe area; just check your local public schools and property values–they both stink.

’98

This article, and the accompanying graphic, are rather pathetic, under the circumstances.

Dennis

New Haven is as safe or safer than any comparable city of it’s size. Having said that, everyone, including the Yale community, is responsible for their own safety. Yale University has a superb police department, led by an outstanding chief who has worked effectively to reduce crime and provide a safe environment for students, faculty and staff. As a former NHPD officer and state law enforcement department head, I can tell you that the YPD is a proactive, commmunity based department that is seen as a leader in campus and urban law enforcement. The university leadership provides a tremendous amount of resources to the police department to ensure everyone’s safety and I would not hesitate to send a child of mine to Yale.

alum

I walk around Crown Towers at 8pm or even midnight on an almost daily basis, and never feel unsafe. It’s sad that the 07Alum felt safer “commuting,” when all the facts show that time spent driving puts you at a much higher risk of death or bodily injury than the risk from urban crime (particularly if you are not a drug dealer, prostitute or involved in illegal activity).

Put it another way: I have friends who have lived in housing projects all their lives, and they have always been fine there. I have other friends and acquaintances who “commute” and live in the suburbs, possibly because they don’t want to see people who aren’t white and privileged like themselves, and they are dying in car accidents about one each year.

JCP

I agree with the first poster, this crime was not a New Haven issue (as far as we know right now). It could have happened anywhere. The Jovin murder seem unlikely to be random, so one could conclude that it was not a New Haven issue either. The Prince murder definitely reflects what is seen as the typical New Haven crime problem–random mugging turned murder.

Hm

“In describing neighborhoods, “feels dangerous” and “seems sketchy” are very often euphemisms for “looks poor and black””

Context is everything. Your comment certainly applies to New Haven; however, it also applies to the Harvard Square mosh pit (mostly lost urban whities) and various Latino neighborhoods in NYC.

It’s more a class thing than a race thing… get your isms right.

GSAS ’13

As a former Dartmouth student, I can vouch for the fact that the vast majority of crimes reported at Dartmouth are related to New Hampshire’s draconian alcohol laws and the Hanover Police’s overzealousness. While at Yale an overly intoxicated 19 year-old undergraduate can be carried by her friends past a nonplussed Yale police officer to a waiting ambulance, at Dartmouth the Hanover police actively patrol the campus and arrest students who so much as slip on the ice.

Grad Alum and NH Native

Thanks #17 and #19 for addressing what is really going on in New Haven. Yalies forget they have chosen to go to school in a city with the same problems as most small cities. Muggings are common, yes, but in many years of living here, I have never felt unsafe. Of course, I act the same as I did when I lived in a small city elsewhere; I didn’t walk alone at night and tried not to flaunt money in public. (P.S. I also crossed the street at crosswalks and with the light)

I am sorry that there are poor people to remind you that not everyone has the privilege of an Ivy League education, but if you develop some basic street smarts, you will be fine. As for these “sketchy” neighborhoods, many are vibrant living and working communities. Check them out– in the daytime if you wish– and stop panicking when you stray beyond Yale’s borders. There’s a lot more to New Haven than all the admittedly wonderful culture Yale brings to it.

Reader

Your coverage has been very well done.

Grad Student Boyfriend

My ex-girlfriend is a grad student in East Rock, and I would often be there and I can tell you that she does not feel safe walking home from campus. This is not far from campus.

And part of that has to do with serious day-time muggings — significantly more serious then car break-ins and thefts, which also happen.

Basically, while I was in New Haven, I saw an unwillingness by Yale or the New Haven polcie department to take seriously the threat of violent crime against students and non-students alike.

Stopping violent crime has nothing to do with race or class — and everything to do with sending police officers to patrol areas where crimes have been reported. Everyone should be interested in that.

As an aside, I went to the University of Pennsylvania during the first half of this decade, when Judith Rodin was president there, and that school is also a sea of privilege in a diverse community of drastically different socioeconomic classes. While there, I always felt that the Penn and Philadelphia police departments were keeping a watchful eye, and the Penn administration and students engaged with the community in a constructive ways so as to prevent town/gown squabbles.

I have not seen that same engagement by Yale, and as one of the leading and richest universities in the world, the fact that they can’t put their own house in order is unacceptable.

Non Sequitur

@#26

Dartmouth? GSAS?

Might wanna look up the word “nonplussed.”

Just trying to help…

What is the data supporting this claim?

Odd quote from this article:

“The number of students choosing to accept Yale’s offer of admission has increased to 68 percent from 53 percent over the past 15 years. And a record number of students are choosing Yale over Harvard, Stanford and Princeton, indicating that security is not a large concern.”

I doubt that any of these claims can be substantiated.

The yield rate at Yale this year was not 68%, but 66.8% (1,958 admits, 1,307 matriculants.)

The Yale yield rate is boosted by filling half the class from the early pool in order to reduce competition with Stanford (35% from the early pool), and Harvard and Princeton, neither of which relies on an early admissions program to boost yield.

Nevertheless, the Yale yield rate has declined in the last 5 years, even as the Stanford yield rate has risen to 70%, and the Harvard yield rate (unaided by an early admission program) has remained constant at 76-78%.

Under the circumstances, it is statistically unlikely that “a record number” of students are choosing Yale over” Stanford and Harvard, at least. The Stanford admissions dean (and former Yale admissions dean) has reported actual numbers showing that Stanford exactly split cross admits with Yale for the Class of 2012. Stanford had never before been able to make this claim.

The most recent reported numbers show Yale losing cross admits to Harvard by better than 2-1, and in some years 3-1.

Can you cite actual data showing that as the Yale yield rate is static or declining, it nevertheless taking “a record number” of the students also admitted to its chief rivals, (who also share the largest overlap pools with Yale), even as those schools enjoy a higher overall yield rate?

Be armed or be sorry

I used to be afraid.
I’m a grown healthy athletic man and yet I was afraid.
It’s embarassing.
It caused me to rage within.
I solved the problem by carrying a concealed weapon.
My choice of firearm has evolved and I now carry a sixshooter, “The Judge”, named for its popularity among Judges in courtrooms. It can be loaded with either 45Longs or .410 shotgun shells. Mine’s loaded with 3 shotgun shells for the first three probable close range shots and three 45Longs for the final three probable long range shots as they flee. I’ve never had to use it.
I doubt I ever will.
Scum sense the confidence that a loaded gun gives and steer clear.
Responsible citizens carrying concealed weaspons are the solution to New Haven’s crime problem.
Be armed or be scared.
Be armed or be sorry.

Chris from RI

I agree that, as a visitor from another state, New Haven “feels dangerous”, not because of the minority groups, but because of the problem behaviors apparent to people passing through the area. When I was visiting a relative in Yale New Haven Hospital, I even observed violent physical arguments between other visitors, as well as between patients in the hospital. It felt very unsafe not only outside but inside the facility.

stephanie

The other problem behavior is the incredibly dangerous state of traffic around the campus.

Examples, vehicles constantly running reds, vehicles speeding at 50 miles per hour down Elm Street, no pedestrian infrastructure, no bicycle infrastructure, no crosswalks, no crosswalk signals in many areas. That makes people feel unsafe much more than witnessing any arguments in the hospital. The situation is completely insane.

Yale should invest in these things, otherwise people will continue to avoid it.

’98

Post # 31 above raises some good points. 15 years ago, for my class, the yield rate was 53.5%.